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sirkiss majeur @Ferm ELISHA F. ALDRI-CH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

METHOD 0F ASCENDING AND DESCENDING INCLINED PLANEs oN RArLRoADs wim-HlLoccivroTIvE-Eridurne.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 426, dated October 12, i837.

Toa'ZZ 107mm t may concern.'

Be it known that I, ELIsi-IA F. ALDRICH, of the city, county, and Stateof New York, have invented a new and VImproved Mode of Ascending andDescending Inclined Planes, upon Railroads, with a Locomotive-Engine;and I do hereby declare that the following is a. full and exactdescription thereof.

Upon any railroad where the inclination takes place', outside of themain track a raised foundation is to be constructed, of wood or anyother material that may be found'most useful; upon said raisedfo-undation, a rail is firmly attached, and is to be used in ascending,(and if a single track railway) in descending the inclinations by thelocomotive engine. v

N N, Figure l, represents the main track upon which all the cars run aswell as the forward wheels of the locomotive; M, M, Fig. l, representsthe raised rails resting upon wooden posts which are framed into thecross timbers; on the top of the posts, string pieces are framed, towhich the iron rails are made fast. The raised rails are to be of castiron in the center of which, sockets, or holes, are left running throughor to a sufficient depth, to receive the cogs or projections upon thesmall wheels, which are to be used upon said rails: The rails may becast with projections upon their upper surface, in which casethe smallwheels will bevmade with holes instead of cogs; the fiat surface eachside of the sockets or projections is to be of any width that may befound most useful; the small Wheels D, D, D, Fig. l, 3, are to be placedupon the ends of the aXle of the driving wheels of the locomotiveengine; the center of the peripheries of the small wheels, are to bemade with holes, cogs or pins, to fit the rails, as described above; thefiat surface each side of the holes cogs or pins upon the wheels, is torest upon the fiat surface. Each side of the projections or sockets uponthe rails; upon which the said wheels run in ascending and if a singletrack road in descending the inclinations. If cast iron should be foundtoo weak for the cogs upon the small wheels, sockets or holes are leftinto which steel or wrought iron A cogs or pins are placed and keyedfast the cogs holes or pins do not take effect as soon as the smallwheels touch the raised rails, to ease the concussion that takes placewhen the small wheels touch the raised rails, springs may be placedunder the ends of said rails as represented in Fig. l, by S S, in thiscase it willbe necessary to joint the rails some distance from the endsas shown in Fig. 1. To get rid of the diiculty o-f running on to theraised rails the ends may be raised up and down by means of levers; O,O, F igpl, represents the levers which are made circular at the ends, onwhich cogs are made to work into racks which are made fast to the raisedrails, or on which the rails rest; the levers may be either simplecompound or circular; if it should be necessary to adopt this plan ofgetting upon they raised rails, the engine would stop at the properplace then by raising the ends of the rails, the large or driving wheelsare raised from the main track to avsuificient height to Y keep thewateryin the boiler level when the small wheels D D D rest upon therails M, dM, M. W'hen an inclination is to be descended upon a singletracked railway, the

engine is to be turned or the forward partraised with the exception ofthe forward wheels to raise the forward part and keep the forward wheelsupon the main track I have affixed levers in the following manner; K Krepresents large bolts or bars which run through the frameand are madefast to the bearings of the forward wheels, the springs L L, should bemade double vin order to allow the racks H H, and the bolts K K, to passbetween them, the levers I I, are so fixed in the top of the bolts thatthey may work into the racks H H, which are made fast tothe frame of theengine the bolts are made to slide in the frame, the bearings slide thesame distance in order to allow the levers I I to be brought from aperpendicular to a horizontal position by which means the frame with theboiler are raised to a sufficient height to keep the water in the boilerlevel, and the forward wheels remain upon the main track N N N.

In order to retard the velocity in descending I have aiiiXed brakes ofthe following description, E, E, E, Fig. 1 2, represent pieces of metalof a larger diameter than the wheels and so hinged to the frame that byturning the screws G G, Fig. l, the pieces F F, are brought in contactwith the circumference of the wheels; the pieces F, F, Figs. l, 2, maybeof wood or metal and are to be Vie screwed or otherwise fastened to E EE, in order that they may be removed, when too much worn for use. i i

G, Fig. 2, represents a manner of working or applying the brakes bymeans of a lever and chain, the chain is to be attached to E E, at X andpassed around a small roller or cylinder in E E, at Y, by bringing t-helever to a horizontal position in the direct-ion of the dotted linethebrake would have the desired elect. Fig. 5, represents a perspectiveviewI of the brake just described, with the exception that the cylinderruns across the trame of the cars with a wheel in the center similar toa rudder or steering wheel ot vessels. By this mode one man can applythe brakes upon both sides of the cars.

Fig. 6, represents a mode of working the brakes with a lever in such amanner that one man can apply the brakes to all four wheels at once andthereby take advantage o' the adhesion of the car to the rails, thelevers should be placed in the center of the car; and by' bringing thelevers down in the direction of the dotted line the pieces T, would beforced down and the brake would have a powerful eect upon all four ofthe car wheels.

Fig. 3, shows an end view of the driving wheels B B, the sm all wheels DD, and the axle P, the bearings may be either inside or outside of thesmall wheels D D D, Figs. l 3. Y

7 Fig. t shows a segment of rail with all the bearing surface on theinside; rails made in this manner would prevent the necessity of thesockets running through, as water and other obstructions would run outat the side. Pieces are to be attached to the frame ot the engine uponeach side and to pass over the raised rails the said pieces are made toslide and can be forced into the sockets of the raised rails by means ofa lever in order to retain the ltrain when on the ascendinginclinations; followers may be so attached to the frame as to pass overthe raised rails and drop into the sockets and prevent the descent ofthe train in case of any accident. Saw-toothed racks may be made fast tothe outside of the raised rails for the above described followers todrop into if the sockets should not give su'flicient grip or hold. Arack or ratchet of this kind may be placed in the center ot the maintrack and tollowers may be attached to the engine and to each car (insuch a manner that they could be let down when the inclination was to beascended) and Vin the right position to be dra-wn over the said rail. Inthis manner all liability to descend in case out' accident on theascending inclina- 'tions would be prevented, the followers might bethrown down upon the earth, and if properly made would do away with thenecessity of having the rail in the center of the 1r ain track, thefollowers would be raised up when the hill was passed. S S Fig. 1represent springs under the ends of the raised rails in order to easethe concussion when the small wheels come in contact with the raisedrails in case levers for raising the ends of said rails should be foundsuperfluous.

Fig. 7 represents an'end view-of the driving wheels with the crankplaced between the large and small wheels, and the bearings outside ofthe small wheels; in placing the cranks between the wheels the parts ofthe wheels from the center of motion to the crank or connection are toact as the sides oi' the cranks, this form of crank maybe more or lessthan the same diameter of the small wheels, but in all cases it shouldbe connected with them as shown in Fig. 7

Vvhat I claim as my invention and wish to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The peculiar and various modes of constructing the raised rails andwheels to fit the same, both as described above. I also claim the methodor methods of keeping the water level in the boilers of the locomotiveby the means and in the manner above described. I also claim the mode ofworking the brakes above described and represented at Figs. 2, 5 and 6of the drawings. I also claim the placing of the cranks or connectionsbetween the large and small wheels and the bearings outside of the smallwheels.

' ELISI-IA F. ALDRICI-I.

TWitnesses B. K. MORSELL, D. S. WATTS.

